Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:04:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joe Hunter <hunterjoe45@yahoo.com>
Subject: Baseball Diamond Tails - 2E

All the usual disclaimers apply:

+This story is a work of fiction.  If you think it is real, you have a very
active imagination.

+Do not read this story if you live in an area where it is illegal to do
so.

+Scenes of sexual activity between an adult male and a young boy are
represented.  Do not read further if this offends you.

+Please do not imitate the actions portrayed herein - the author cannot
accept responsibility for any actions promoted by this story.


If you would like to get in touch, please e-mail me at:

			hunterjoe45@yahoo.com

I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Support Nifty!   Joe

____________________________


BASEBALL DIAMOND TAILS - 2E
(copyright 2011, Joe Hunter)

::::::::::::::::::
 Catcher:  Part E
::::::::::::::::::

Saturday came and the league celebrated Opening Day.  All our boys arrived
early looking spic and span in their clean uniforms and I surprised and
delighted them with a complete set of new team caps.  "This way you can
have one for practice and one for games," I told them.

We took several group shots for a team picture, and then each boy posed in
one batting and one fielding stance for his baseball cards.  Todd had his
picture taken standing proudly at home plate in his catcher's equipment.

Our team had the second of the two games scheduled for that day.  To my own
surprise, we won in a very close contest against a team I had thought would
be better than it was.

Todd played well.  Nothing spectacular, he made his share of mistakes, but
had some good plays, too, and got two hits.  I was glad for his sake,
because his parents were there and I knew he wanted to please them.  I saw
him talking happily with them after the game.  Just before they left, Todd
slipped up to whisper, "I'll come over to see you tomorrow, Coach."

I gave him a grin and nodded.  "See ya then, Tee."

Everything had gone so well that I was surprised and a little disappointed
when my phone did not ring early the next morning.  I had breakfast and
waited, but Todd did not appear.

I began to get concerned that something might have happened, and I was
working my way up to calling Todd's house on some excuse when, at about
eleven o'clock my phone rang.  But it was not Todd.  My anxiety level went
right through the roof as I picked up and heard his mother.

"Coach," she said in a worried tone, "Would you mind if I sent Todd over to
you for the rest of the day?"

"Not at all," I said, trying to keep the relief out of my voice.  "In fact,
I was sort of expecting to hear from him this morning."

"Thank you," she told me.  "While he's there, perhaps you could have a talk
with him.  He seems to have so much respect for you."

"Is something wrong?"  I asked.

She hesitated, and then said, "We're very concerned about some of the
friends he has.  We suspect he may be using drugs."

"No," I told her firmly.  "I can assure you he isn't.  You're right about
some of his friends, but I know Todd does not use any drugs."

"How can you be so sure?"  She sounded doubtful.

"I can always tell if a boy is using or smoking," I assured her.  "Also,
Todd would have told me."

She paused again and then said, "Well, I feel much better hearing you say
that.  I certainly hope you're right.  But my husband caught Todd and his
friend Pauli doing something yesterday evening and he's very upset with
him."

"What were the boys doing?"

"I think I'll let Todd tell you himself," she said.  "And I appreciate your
taking time to help me with this."

"I don't mind doing anything to help Todd," I said.  "I think he's a
wonderful kid.  Why don't we do this; I'll have him here today and talk
with him, and then I'll bring him back later and we can all talk.  I think
I may have some suggestions that will help take care of a lot of your
concerns."

"Thank you, coach," she said, the relief in her voice apparent.  "Won't you
please consider staying for supper tonight?"

"You bet," I assured her.  "I think I can promise you that we can resolve
all your concerns tonight."

"I'm going to bring Todd over now," she said.

Twenty minutes later I saw their station wagon pull into my driveway.  I
opened the front door and went out, but before I had a chance to say or do
anything, Todd was out of the car and running past me into the house.  He
was carrying his school backpack and the scrapbook.

Todd's mother got out of the car with a very worried expression.  "I'm
sorry Coach," she said, "I don't know what's gotten into Todd.  Now he says
he doesn't want to go home."

"What on earth happened last night?"  I asked her.

She brushed at her hair distractedly.  "I think Todd should tell you," she
said.  "I'm not sure about all of it.  But my husband became very upset
with something he found Todd and his friend doing.  And apparently he found
some marijuana.  Todd locked himself in his room last night and wouldn't
come out.  He hasn't had any breakfast.  He's been begging me to call you
all morning.  When I told him I was taking him over here, he came out with
his things and told me he never wanted to come back.  I just couldn't
reason with him."

"OK, all right.  I think I can fix this," I reassured her.  "I really don't
think you need to worry.  It looks worse than it is.  I'll bring him back
with me this evening and I bet we'll be able to work everything out.  You
can tell your husband from me that Todd is not using drugs, and also that I
share his concern about Todd's friends."

"Thank you, Coach," she said looking relieved.

I went into the house and checked the living room.  There was no sign of
Todd and he was not in either of the bedrooms, but the bathroom door was
locked.  I knocked gently.

"Todd?"

"Don't make me go back, Coach."  The boy's voice from behind the door
sounded hysterical.

"I won't."

There was a pause, and then he asked, "Is my mother gone?"

"Yes," I assured him.  "I'll be in the kitchen, Todd.  You come out when
you're ready.  Everything's all right."

I went to the kitchen and fixed a bowl of cereal and milk.  After a short
while I heard the bathroom door open and Todd came in carrying his
scrapbook and his backpack.

"Sit down, son," I told him gently and put the bowl of cereal in front of
him.

While he ate I looked in the book bag.  He had packed his baseball uniform
and his glove.

When he had finished, I stood next to him and stroked his head.  "Would you
like to talk about it?"

He nodded.  I took him in the living room and sat in the big lounge chair
with the boy on my lap, cradled against me.  I held him for a while,
petting him, and then said gently, "What's wrong?"

It took some time, but at last I got the story out of him.  The gist of it
was that Todd's father had walked in on Todd and Pauli and caught them with
their clothes off.

"But we weren't doing anything, Coach!"  Todd said desperately.  "We were
only wrestling."

I hugged him.  "Just tell me what happened."

"I was telling Pauli all about my game," Todd said miserably.  "We were
having fun.  My parents went out somewhere.  I thought they'd be gone for a
while.  We decided to go to my room and I showed Pauli some things about
how he could move around and make noises when we did it to each other so he
could have more fun.  Then we decided to wrestle naked.  When my parents
came back we didn't hear them and all of a sudden the door opened and my
dad was there."

Todd began to tremble as he told me this and at the last he began to sob.
"He yelled at me, Coach..." His little shoulders heaved.  "He yelled at me
and called me names.  He hit me."

"What else happened?"  I asked, hugging him.

"He called Pauli a lot of dirty names, too," Todd said, his voice breaking.
"He picked up Pauli's clothes and some dope fell out of a pocket and he got
even madder and called us more names and..."  Todd broke down completely,
sobbing uncontrollably, his shoulders heaving.

I hugged and stroked him.  "All right, Todd.  It's all right.  Everything's
going to be fine."

But he just kept shaking his head and crying desperately, "No it's not!  No
it's not!  It can't ever be.  It never can."

"Hush...  hush, Todd..." I soothed.  "You're right here, with me.  You're
safe."  I stroked him and petted him.

"I'm no good!"  Todd sobbed hysterically.  "I'm no good!  I've never been
any good.  I've tried so hard, Coach.  But I'm no good!"

"That's not true, son," I told him firmly.  "That's just not true.  Who
told you such a thing?"

"He did," Todd sobbed in despair, "He did.  He yelled at me.  Over and
over.  And I've always known it.  I knew they didn't like me.  I'm no good.
And I tried so hard.  So hard, Coach.  I did..."

Todd's voice choked off and he buried his face in my chest, his body racked
by paroxysms of sobbing and shuddering.  There was nothing I could do to
comfort him.  As it went on and on I began to be frightened for him.  I
rocked and hugged, stroking and whispering soothingly.

I lost track of time.  It seemed to go on forever.  At last his shuddering
stopped and the sobs gradually turned into hiccups.  He put his arms around
me and smuggled very close as I continued to cuddle and rock.  Finally,
after he had been still for a while, he said in a small, tired little
voice, "Coach, I want to live with you."

I kissed the top of his head.  "You already do, Tee.  You can come here
whenever you want."

"I mean for real, Coach.  For always."

I hugged him.  "Boys have to live with their parents, Tee.  But you can
live here, too.  On weekends and other times."  I paused, kissing him
again, and then continued, "Your parents love you, Tee.  They want you just
as much as I do."

"No," Todd said with a whimper, "They don't want me.  My father hates me."

"No, Tee.  He doesn't hate you.  He was angry and scared yesterday.  And he
said things he shouldn't have said.  But he doesn't hate you.  I promise
you."

Todd hugged me tightly.  "Why can't you be my dad?"  He begged.

I smiled and stroked his hair.  "But I am, Todd," I said to him very
seriously.

He pulled his head up and looked at me with a tear stained face.  "What do
you mean, Coach?"

I regarded him lovingly.  "In a way I already am your dad," I assured him.
"I am because I love you, and because you've asked me to be."

"But what about my father?"

"Don't you see, Todd?"  I told him kindly, "You can have us both.  Your
father will always be your father.  You can't change that.  But I can be
the dad you've chosen.  The one you really want."  I pushed his head back
onto my chest and rocked him again.  "What's happened with you and your
father, Todd - it's nothing new.  It's happened to millions of kids all
over the world.  Just because you're born to someone doesn't mean you're a
perfect match for each other.  Lots of kids find other people to help them
grow up.  You and I are very lucky to have each other."

I kept talking to him, reassuring him.  It was quite a while before I had
him all calmed down.  "You'll see, Todd," I told him over and over.  "I'll
talk to your parents and we'll work this out."

I reached down and took off his sneakers and socks.  Then, I turned him so
that he was lying backwards on my lap with his legs up over my shoulders
and his bare feet above my head.  I tickled him and he giggled a little and
held my hands.

"Now that you're here," I told him tenderly, "I guess we'll have to find
something to do."

He gazed up at me and smiled sweetly.

With his hands still holding my wrists, I began to rub his firm lean belly,
stroking through the cloth of his shirt.  He was wearing a baggy cotton
pullover with a football team logo on it.  It was loose enough to slip up
and down as I rubbed gently.  I slid the cloth very slowly over his smooth
skin.  His lean tapered waist was so narrow I could almost spend it with
two hands.  The muscles were hard and tight under his silky skin.  I could
feel their lines of definition.

Todd reached down and pulled his shirt up halfway, baring his stomach and
waist.  He took my hands and placed them on his bare skin.  Then he put his
arms over his head and closed his eyes.

I stroked the satiny smoothness of his belly and ran my hands around his
flanks.  His little abdominal muscles rippled under my fingers.  His
tapering flanks were lean and hard.

My hands pushed up under his bunched shirt, fingers climbing the ladder of
his ribs to feel the breadth of his chest and stroke the rounded, firm
little muscles.  My palms brushed over the tips of his tiny nipples and I
felt them harden.

Todd reached down again and, raising his body slightly, lifted his shirt
off over his head and dropped it.  When he rose up, the defined sheet of
his stomach became rock hard.

After he stretched out again, I stroked and caressed his chest and
shoulders, gently massaging his firm upper body, my palms sliding down into
the velvety hollows of his armpits.  I circled them on his silky flanks and
then rubbed up and down, from shoulders to waist, savoring the smoothness
of the boy and the lean taper of his form.  Pushing across the waist of his
loose pants I caressed Todd's lower belly through the cloth and then swept
inwards, brushing fingers over the rigid branch straining up beneath.  Then
my hands slid back up over his hard stomach all the way to his chest.

I took a finger and placed it in his belly button, pressing firmly and
Todd's hips shifted as he tightened his butt.  He made a little sound,
"Mmmmmm..." and then when I pressed harder, moaned softly and reached down
to unbutton his pants and pull down his fly.  I pushed the loose waist of
his pants down and slipped a hand into his briefs.  The boy's thick little
boner pressed against my fingers and I began to rub the engorged shaft.  As
my hand moved up and down under his clothes, Todd stretched and tightened
his butt.

"Good?" I whispered.

"Yeah," he whispered back.

After a short time, Todd reached down again and pushed on the waist of his
pants.  He waited for me to help him and then lifted his legs straight into
the air and together we pushed off his pants and briefs.  The boy was now
completely naked.  He rested his bare thighs on my shoulders and stretched
out on my lap once more, his rigid little shaft jutting up from his body.
I watched it jump with his heartbeats and then put my fingers back on the
throbbing shaft and rubbed.

"Do it in me, Coach," Todd begged writhing.

I nodded.  "Let's go in the bedroom."

As I swung his legs off me and stood him up the excited boy told me, "I
wanna' get the stuff."

He trotted eagerly into the kitchen returning with the bottle of Hawaiian
Tropic.  "I like this," he said handing it to me.

Even though he wanted to pull me right to the bed I had him stand in front
of the mirror first while I oiled his body.  He posed, watching me coyly in
the glass, and when he saw my surprised approval of how well he was doing
the five positions I had taught him he told me proudly, "I've been
practicing."

"We need to join them into a routine," I said and showed him how to blend
each pose into the next.  Todd copied me eagerly and quickly caught on.

"I'm good at this!"  He exclaimed.

I nodded and swept him up into my arms.  "Let's try another new thing," I
whispered, kissing him on the lips.

Taking him to the bed I stretched him out and pulled up his legs.  Then I
undressed completely while the aroused boy watched, his eyes shining.

"I like the way you look, coach," he told me.  "I want to look like that."

"You will, Tee," I assured him.

I knelt between his legs with the bottle of Hawaiian Tropic and squirted
oil on my fingers.  "Spread your legs wide, Tee."

Todd grabbed his knees and pulled them to either side of his chest.  His
butt stretched open in front of me.  I coated his tight ring with lubricant
and slid a finger up to spread more inside.  Todd sighed when I found his
nub and strained to pull his thighs apart farther, bearing down.  The tight
ring loosened and I slipped in a second finger.

"Ohhhh..." the young boy moaned softly, arching his head back and closing
his eyes.

I was aching with desire to enter the boy.  Using my fist I smeared oily
lotion on my own straining member and then leaned over him warning, "This
way it goes in more.  You gotta' tell me if it hurts."

He nodded eagerly.  "I wanna' do it..."

I got positioned and slid the blunt head of my rod onto his glistening
little opening.  As soon as he felt the tip Todd pulled his knees back,
lifting his hips to squeeze me through the ring.  There was a moment of
resistance, I gave a gentle thrust, and the boy gasped in pleasure as my
thick fullness popped in.

"Ah...  Ahhhhhh..."

I waited a moment to let Todd adjust and he shifted his hips slightly.
Then he hugged his knees and I felt him strain, bearing down.  There was a
slipping, shifting sensation and then suddenly all resistance was gone.  I
thrust forward and slid smoothly into his hot moist sheath.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Arching and straining, tugging at his knees to open himself as far as he
could, Todd groaned in pain and delight as I impaled him.
"Uh... Uh... Coach... Go more... In more... Uh... Don't stop... Uh..."

With a final push I buried my full length in the boy, my groin jammed
against his stretched entrance and inner thighs.  When Todd felt this he
let go of his knees and wrapped arms and legs around my body, hugging
tightly as he tried desperately to pull me in even deeper.

"Oooo... Oooo... Coach..." he moaned.

"Does it hurt, Tee?"  I whispered.

He nodded.  "But gooood..." he moaned passionately.  Hugging me even
tighter he writhed, squirming his hips.  "In and out," he begged.

Slowly I began to pump my hips, withdrawing only slightly at first before
thrusting in again.  Todd groaned, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh," and pulled his legs
higher on my back.  Gradually I increased the length of my stroke until I
was more than half way out before sliding back in.

The boy had lost his erection as I entered and suddenly there was a warmth
in my groin from little dribbles of urine.  The boy groaned, tightened arms
and legs around me and strained down harder.  I felt his hot moist insides
loosen even more and Todd's head arched back as I began to thrust faster.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh..." he moaned, writhing, and now I felt his thick little boy
stick harden against my stomach.  Changing my rhythm I paused after each
penetration to grind my hips and Todd shuddered in passion as my tip moved
deep in his loins.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh...  Coach, Coach, Coach..."

His boner was rigid again, pressed to my belly, and Todd strained to lift
up, feet twisting on my back.  "Harder..." he begged, panting.  "Oooo...
Harder..."

I pounded into him, squeezing and grinding at the end of each stroke.
Suddenly Todd bucked.  His legs began to kick and I felt his thick little
shaft pulse again and again.  "Uh... Uh... Uh..." Todd cried.  I thrust,
stretching up into him as far as I could, my hips locked to his open,
stretched ass and the boy heaved as contraction after powerful contraction
jerked his body.

"Ohhhhhhhhh..." Todd groaned as the spasm passed.  "Don't stop,
Coach... Don't stop!  Don't stop..."

I began to thrust in and out again, my rhythm even faster, pounding the boy
to drive deep into his lean little body.  My throbbing shaft slipped in and
out, straining up into hot moist sweetness as Todd clung to me, gasping at
each penetration, overwhelmed by the sensations flooding through him.
Suddenly his legs kicked and I felt his hard thick boner pulse against my
stomach.  Todd locked arms around my chest and bore down as he tried
desperately to let more of me into himself.  "Coach... Coach... Coach..."
he pleaded.  "Ohhhhh..."

Fluid poured from the tip of my shaft as pressure in my loins built.  I was
squeezing as hard as I could to hold back, but when Todd's body heaved and
he kicked his feet, a partial release I could not contain spurted from me.
I thrust up into the boy, locking my groin to his stretched ass and Todd
gave another moaning cry, "Uhhhhhhhh..."  As the boy jerked over and over
and over again, feet kicking with every contraction, his throbbing
boy-stick shot slippery warmth over his stomach and mine

"Oh, Coach...  Coach," he cried.  "I'm doing it!  I'm doing it!  I'm doing
it!"

I answered him with my own explosive climax, filling his hot cavity with
semen and when Todd felt me pulsing inside him and let out a high-pitched
moan of ecstasy, jerking and kicking.

We finished together and I collapsed onto the boy, the two of us gasping,
Todd's arms stretched out to the side and his legs around my waist.  It was
a while before either of us could move, but when I softened and slid out of
him I hugged the boy and rolled onto my side keeping his sweet nakedness
pressed against me.

"My ballplayer," I whispered over and over to him.  "My little catcher."

Finally Todd stirred.  He put his arms around me and hugged.  "I was doing
it, coach," he said softly.  "I was doing it.  Did you see?"

"Yes, Tee," I assured him, "I saw it."

He cuddled closer, smiling happily.  "I like doing that with you.  Can we
do it lots of times?"

"Whenever you want to," I assured him.

He hugged again, drew a knee up over my hip and then buried his head in my
shoulder, cuddling against me while I stroked and petted him.  At last he
pulled his head up and asked, "Can we do the weights today?"

"Yes," I said.  "In fact, that's just what we're going to do next."

He grinned happily, "Yeah!"

"Then," I told him, "We're going to put the engine in the go-cart, so that
next week we can take it to the track and race it."

"Awesome!"  Todd yelled gleefully.

I nodded.  "There are lots of nice kids that hang around the track on
Saturday.  You can meet them and make some friends."

"Can Pauli come with us?"  Todd asked.

"Yup.  In fact, Todd, from now on," I said thoughtfully, "I think you
better keep Pauli away from your house.  If you and he want to fool around
you come over here, OK?"

Todd nodded solemnly.

"Anyway," I continued, "Today we'll put the engine in.  And then..."

"What coach?"  Todd begged.

"Then," I told him, "I'm going to have a talk with your dad and arrange
things."

"Arrange what?"

"I'm going to fix it so you can start coming over here at least three times
a week to do weight lifting.  And I'm going to have him put you on a
wrestling team this fall and winter."

"Wrestling!  For real?"  Todd stared at me wide-eyed.  When I nodded he
gave me a huge hug.  "Thanks coach!  That's gonna' be totally awesome!"

And it was.  Todd was right.  I convinced his parents to go with my plan.
He began working with me on the weights, and was even better than I thought
he would be.  He had a successful baseball season, and in the fall his
parents put him on a wrestling team I recommended.  He liked it immediately
and did well, although doing the weights with me remained his first love.

I wish I could say that everything ended happily, but neither Todd's nor
Pauli's story is finished.

Pauli came with Todd to visit me multiple times.  I developed a
relationship with the boy that might have helped him, although I'll never
know.

That fall David, Pauli's brother, turned sixteen and got his driver's
license.  On a Friday night in early December, David drove Pauli and four
other boys to the mall.  They stayed until the mall closed at midnight.
Afterwards, people who remembered seeing them claimed they had all been
drinking and smoking dope.  But nothing is certain.

What is certain is that sometime later their car was traveling at high
speed down a straight dark road leading towards the golf course.  The road
ended in a 'T' intersection.  David never slowed down for it.  Had he
forgotten it was there?  Was he showing off?  Did the other boys distract
him?  We can never know.

There was evidence that, at the last second, he might have recognized what
was happening and tried to brake or turn, but by then it was much too late.
The car went through the intersection at over 80 miles an hour.  It hurtled
into the trees on the edge of a fairway, and smashed head-on into an
enormous oak.

David, and two other boys in the front seat were killed instantly, their
bodies crushed.  Two more boys, sitting in the back, died of massive head
injury.  Little Pauli, who was also in the back, may have been asleep when
they hit.  There were signs that he was still alive after the crash.

But the accident occurred after midnight on a lonely road.  It was at least
an hour before a passing car saw the wreck and police and firemen reached
the scene.  One of the EMTs thought he saw Pauli move.  He called out
repeatedly to the boy to hold on and that they were trying to reach him.
But by the time the rescuers could lever and cut their way into the wreck,
Pauli was gone.  He had just turned fourteen the month before.  Todd and I
had gotten him a cake.

The accident was a two-day sensation in the newspaper; then it was quickly
forgotten.  The boys had only been drug-using losers.  Nobody missed them.

Todd and I planted a little cross by the oak tree and we went to Pauli's
memorial service.  We were the only people there except for some of his
family.  I was disappointed because I had hoped Pauli's baseball coach
might come.

Neither Todd nor I could possibly have guessed that, even then, Todd was
carrying within himself the terrible seeds of his own fate.

That spring, when Todd turned 14, and as he was really starting to come
into his own as a wrestler, he complained of a sore throat.  It seemed to
be the flu.  But it persisted and got worse.  When it was so bad that he
could not eat, Todd was evaluated at the hospital.  He was diagnosed as
having Hodgkin's disease, that terrible killer of teens and young adults.
Todd's was a particularly malignant form that had already riddled his body
with tumor.

He was started on a very aggressive course of chemotherapy.  For months
Todd had to undergo staging operations, bone marrow samplings, spinal taps,
endless blood testing and repeated courses of terrible intravenous
medications that made him sick and dizzy and caused painful paroxysms of
vomiting and diarrhea.

Todd bore it, as he had borne all the pain in his life, with courage and
determined cheerfulness.  "Look, coach!"  He told me when all his golden
hair fell out, "I get to wear my baseball cap all the time, now.  Even in
school!  I'll be advertising for us!"

He tried very hard to keep up his activities.  Todd was always a trier.
But it was too much for him.  One by one everything had to be dropped.  The
wrestling, the weight lifting, and finally even school.

It nearly broke his heart when he couldn't play baseball that summer.  I
came by his house daily to tell him about practice and our games.  He came
to several of the games and sat in the dugout with us in his uniform so he
could cheer for us.  By then he had become very wasted.  His once
beautiful, sturdy young body had become almost skeletal.  His uniform
flapped on him like clothes on a scarecrow.  His face was so gaunt it was
nearly unrecognizable.  But the important things never changed.  His lovely
eyes, his sweet smile, and his little grin.  They were the real Todd.

There were times when I knew he was scared.  Times when even Todd's great
courage would fail him.  I would hold him in my arms and stroke and cuddle
him as he sobbed.

"Coach," he would beg me.  "Don't let me die.  Please don't.  I'm scared."

"My little catcher," I would whisper to him.  "My little champion.  Don't
give up.  Don't let me down."

We would get out his scrapbook and look at the note I had written for him,
long ago, after his wonderful play at the plate, and we would read it
together.

		Bravery in Adversity.

		Courage in the Face of Overwhelming Odds.

"I'm trying, coach," he would always say, "I'm trying."

After months of the terrible chemotherapy the doctors hoped for a
remission.  They could not achieve it.  The disease reappeared almost
immediately in a vicious form.  Todd now faced not only the disease itself
but also the terrible aftereffects of the treatments he had undergone.
Pneumonia set in and he was taken to the hospital.

I saw him that night, looking very little and frail amid all the equipment
around his bed.  He was wearing an oxygen mask and couldn't say much, but I
leaned over him and whispered, "Bravery," and I saw his lips form the word,
"Courage."

"You're my champion, Todd," I told him softly.  "You're the greatest kid in
the world."

He gave me his little grin and weakly squeezed my hand.

The doctors said he was responding to their efforts and I left the hospital
praying that, somehow, Todd would beat the odds.

At four in the morning I got a frantic call from Todd's parents who told me
that Todd was having trouble.  They were leaving right away and asked me to
meet them at the hospital.  But before any of us could get there to be with
him, my little catcher was gone.

The nurses told me that he had been calling for me just before he died.

I have a picture of Pauli and Todd that was taken that first season, on the
Saturday our team played Pauli's.  Their team was much better than ours and
they won easily, but the boys did not care.  I'm not sure they even knew
the score.  Because we were an easy team, Pauli was kept in the whole game,
even though he was a substitute.  I remember Pauli got a hit that day that
he was very proud of, and Todd was ecstatic because he threw out a runner
at second base.  One of the only times he was able to do that.

The picture was taken after the game.  It shows the two boys standing on
home plate with their arms around each other's shoulders.  Pauli is smiling
and holding the bat he had gotten his hit with.  Todd is standing proudly
in his catcher's gear wearing his famous grin.

I look at that picture often.  I have it in front of me now.  I keep it,
not just in memory of my two young friends, but to remind me of all the
little fellows who every year ride their bikes to the practice fields and
spend hot summer afternoons playing the wonderful game of baseball.  I
remind myself to be kind to them and to cherish them.

I still practice my team in the same place.  And from time to time, usually
when I'm tired, I drive up before practice and look at that little bunch of
trees where Todd and Pauli always parked their bikes, and catch myself
expecting to see two boys waving, running toward the truck.

[ The End ]

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Hope you enjoyed it.  This baseball series has a 'long' short story for
every position around the diamond.  Look for a new chapter or two each
month.  Here is a short excerpt from the next in the series - The First
Baseman:

...  Since JC was being assigned not drafted he wasn't at tryouts, so I
never saw my new player until our first practice.  That first sight was a
revelation.

What my informant had failed to mention was the boy's incredible beauty.
He had the kind of looks you see in child actors, the kind that literally
dazzle you.  I noticed him as I drove up, before I even parked my truck.

It was a beautiful spring afternoon.  Bright rays of sunshine streaming
down around some fair weather clouds gleamed on the long blond hair of a
young boy who was standing there, waiting for me.  A little breeze
fluttered the loose gold T-shirt he was wearing pushing it off one of his
smooth shoulders.  He stood, expectantly, with his slender body outlined
against the mountains in the distance.  It was like a picture in a book.

When I got out of the truck he walked toward me with a friendly smile,
moving with the confident grace you see in all natural athletes, almost
like a dancer.  I knew immediately who he was.

"Hi," he said and extended his hand.  "My name's JC.  Are you the coach who
talked to me on the phone?"

[ To be continued... ]

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Thanks for taking the time to read my story and if you'd like to comment,
my e-mail address is:

			hunterjoe45@yahoo.com

I will try to answer all serious mailings.  My on-line access is very
limited.  Rants and ravings will not get consideration.

To all you readers who enjoy these stories, please support Nifty with
contributions and keep the Archive online.  Check the Nifty home page for
ways to make contributions.  Without this Archive those of us who write for
you will lose a wonderful resource to get our stories out.

You can find links to all my other stories on Nifty under my name, Joe
Hunter, listed under the J's (for Joe) in the prolific authors list.  I
hope you will read and enjoy!

All the Best.  Joe